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 One of the first " grown up " books I ever read was my brother's copy of Edgar Rice Burrough's " A Princess of Mars " , and the reason I read it in the first place was due to the artwork of Frank Frazetta that graced not only the cover but included interior pen and ink illos as well . As a point of fact , the very first comic book title I ever followed religiously was DC Comics " Weird Worlds " that contained serializations of ERB's "John Carter of Mars " series . I've had in mind to do an action figure of Dejah Thoris for some time , but had not yet found the " right " figure with which to create her . I finally found her .  I would not define this as a strict interpretation of ERB's Dejah , as much as an homage to her , and to her myriad incarnations by a multitude of artists . Dejah Thoris has had so many visualizations it would be practically impossible to do up an " original " version of her since practically everone who has rendered her in whatever medium has drawn inspiration from preceding images , and I would say if anyone deserved the " iconic " imagery copyright it would have to be Frazetta , who was primarily responsible for creating such an invigorated stir over ERB's Barsoom series when he handled the illustration chores for the print run during the seventies . Having picked up the Black Label 70's Cher by Mattel simply for the headsculpt , which I found to be absolutely exquisite ; I was then confronted with the dilemna of what to utilize it for . It did not take very long for me to realize that THIS would be the headsculpt to use for my long awaited Princess of Mars .  Barsoomians really didn't wear that much clothing , aside from metal adornments , they pretty much ran around stark naked . When you are dealing with ation figures though , it's kinda necessary to give them some type of accoutrements , if only to draw attention away from the jointing . For my version of Dejah Thoris , it was an opportunity to see how little clothing I could create , and what type of metal adornments I could toss together from my parts bin that would cover the jointing while still holding somewhat true to the image portrayed in ERB's stories . At this stage of the customization I have pretty much completed the bulk of what Dejah will be clad in , and will now just be adding ribbons , bracelets and some type of headress . I will be adding a loincloth for the front , just to keep this figure from becoming " R " rated , and while originally contemplating leaving out " underwear " I have decided to give her a thong just because I wanted to try my hand at it , as well as giving her a bit more layering to her costuming for visual interest .  So far the thong has been the only bit of costuming that has required sewing , and that was merely to attach the O-rings and the eye hooks at the back ( we'll get to those later ) . By far one of the easiest sewing tasks I've undertaken , since I cut the thong from leather thus saving myself the need to hem . The strings of the thong are gold elastic and tied with a Lark's Head knot ( also known as a Cow's Hitch ) onto the O-rings . I cut a thin band of brass and crimped it around just to add some detail . Observant folks will notice that the girdle was created using the same brass clasps I used to make the bridle bits for my Samurai Horse tack , of course with these I did some bending to get them to follow the contours of the hips . The girdle hooks together at the front via two clasps that I wired together . My original plan was to attach a loin cloth to the front clasp , though I may end up scrapping that idea and just add some more ribbons or possibly chains here .  I would have liked to have been able to use a piece of filigreed jewelry for the vambrace on Dejah's arm , but could not find one . No worry , I had some brass wire and figured I could give a try at twisting one . To accomplish this I first drew out a rough sketch of the vambrace . Next I identified the key bend points and made a bending template by driving nails into a pierce of wood at those points . From there it was a simple matter of wrapping and bending the wire around the nail posts . One the basic shape was achieved I removed the brass wire from the template and did some additional wrapping , bending and twisting . Lastly I placed the vambrace on the arm and shaped it to the contours of the arm . I used brass thread to make the wires that hold the vambrace onto the arm .  I had planned on making her some brass pasties , but as I get further along with this project I am reconsidering that . I may end up giving her a nipple job and leaving her breasts unadorned . This shot also displays why I am rethinking the loincloth , the front of her brass girdle along with the underlying thong looks pretty nice . A simple chain looped around her thighs and across the front with perhaps some dangles might be just the thing . One last note , I did wrap a thin band of brass around the handle of her knife to thicken it up so that it fit more snugly in her grasp . This knife was created by master bladesmith Auret7 , and it really looks like a dagger that a Martian Princess might possess , dainty but intimidating .  Here is the thong and girdle attachments from the posterior view . I will be sewing a filigree disk onto the round clasp ring , whose sole purpose ( aside from adding more decorative detail ) is to cover the eyehook attachment of the thong .  With the brass girdle removed , the simplicity of the thong becomes quite apparent .  As I mentioned , sewing the eye hook and O-rings has been the only sewing done for this costume thus far , and it's pretty basic . The elastic cords are just tied on and then covered with sobo glue to make sure they stay tied .  I decided that the loincloth would most likely be superfluous at this point , the girdle and thong pretty much capture the right look for Dejah as is and with the addition of a loop of chain I'm really fairly pleased with this whole little ensemble .  A Place To Stick Her Knife . Other Than A Black Pirate
I really wasn't quite sure just how I wanted to tackle the scabbard for Dejah's knife . Having it strapped to her thigh was an option , if a rather obvious one . I prefer fairly traditional knife rigs , hanging from a belt , but then Dejah's not wearing a belt . What material I would construct the sheath with was another problem . Leather was another obvious choice , but I've done leather sheaths before and I really needed Dejah's scabbard to reflect the ornate metalwork of Barsoomian culture . I had the brass ornaments with which to decorate the scabbard and as I pondered the riddle of wood , leather or plastic sheathing I came to the conclusion that I could probably construct the scabbard from brass as well . I traced the outline of the scabbard around the knife and cut it out of the brass , the two sides abutted so that I could close the sheath edge by folding the brass in half . I hammered it to form the initial fold , and hammered it against the back of a single edged knife to get a crisp flat edge to the back of the sheath . I used the tines of a fork as a form to hammer down the bottom edge of the sheath , following the curve of the tine to bevel the bottom edge down . I then did some flat hammering on the side of the sheath to close the gap where the outside edges of the sheath pattern , when folded in half , make the bottom edge of the scabbard . I used a thin strip of leather to act as a grip for the filigree clasp called into use for the chain belt attachment , it's held in place simply by tension . I stuck a small blob of putty on the bottom tip of the scabbard and pressed a bell clasp on to make the scabbard's butt cap . A brass O-ring passed thru the bell clasp's thread hole and strung it with gold chain to serve as a leg strap .    Boobs Of Mars
For the sheer sake of experimentation , I decided to use one of the extra PB breastplates to do a boob job test for Dejah . The stock production breastplate is fine and dandy , but does have that rather simple " doll-like " quality and I wanted to see whether or not sculpting a new and more realistic breastplate might enhance this custom more . Being a test , I wanted to get results quickly , so I used sculpey over the small breastplate , and did a boil cure ; the whole little project took only about an hour .  Taking The Experiment to Final  Sculpey does not have the requisite flex to serve as the actual breastplate material , but for the purposes of a quick test it served nicely and I was pretty happy with the results . When I begin work on the final breastplate , I will most likely use kneadatite , since it will blend nicely with the plastic of the PB breastplate and will have the durability and flex necessary to function as a final modification . Just a sidebar notation , that regards the level of detail in a modification such as this , and really a matter of both realism and personal aesthetics is nipple details . Were Dejah a human female , I might want to go in for the final version and make the nipples " fully detailed " , but since she is Barsoomian , and lays eggs rather than giving " live birth " , it's unlikely that she would suckle a newborn , so I don't really need to give her nipples at all . I can't remember any more whether or not any mention was ever given to the Red Men of Mars being nurtured in their infancy in a manner similar to humans , and to be honest am not that concerned with that level of accuracy with this rendition . For the sake of aesthetics I will probably do Dejah's nipples in the same simplified fashion as in this test and leave it at that .   Deciding the design of a crown for my Dejah Thoris was a very simple matter , and is very much inspired by the depictions of Barsoomian headwear designed by Frank Frazetta . I always liked the sweeping wings and flanges with which Frank adorned his martian helmets and tiaras and I wanted to do the same thing . I used some parts from a couple of christmas ornaments for the side pieces for Dejah's crown and joined them together with cut brass and wire .  The tiara is pieced together entirely by brass thread and just bending the wires and brass pieces together and it just slides right over the head , held in place by the strand of gold chain and centered by the front brass band and the satin ribbons at the back , which serve as both a functional and decorative device . I'll be adding some additional jewels and bangles to complete the crown .  Making Dejah's foot and legwear was a bit more problematic for me , at least from the decision making process . The leg adornment was actually the easiest design decision again primarily because I wanted to create leg wear similar to that depicted by Frazetta in his classic Martian artwork . Like her vambrace , for her ankle greave I used a twisted brass wire formed by way of a pin template which was contoured around a cut brass base that I am in the process of shaping with embossing . The combination of twisted wire and embossed sheet brass gives the look of the filigreed metal greaves that are so prominent in Frazetta's paintings .  Dejah's sandals are easily the most labor intensive aspect of her costume thus far , due mostly to the fact that I braided brass thread to create the straps for her footwear . Since I don't ever plan on changing this figure I went ahead and wrapped her sandals right onto the feet and then added the toe thong and ribbon and leather soles last . These may still be removed from her feet ( though it would indeed take some effort ) . I could have chosen a simpler design , but I wanted these to reflect the delicacy and intricacy of martian metalwork as described in Burrough's novels .  Just for the fun of it , and the likely probability that John Carter will be a forthcoming custom , I decided to start work on a Barsoomian sword . I've never done a basket hilt before , and I thought that it would be an interesting side project as I continued work on Dejah's new breastplate , during the hours that I waited for the Kneadatite to cure . You can see how the finished sword looks by clicking this link . I pretty much just winged the basket hilt , in that I created a simple pattern and cut it from the brass and then bent it to shape basing the entire look on what I imagined I could achieve by bending the three flanged wings on either side along with the handguard and hilt . It actually turned out much more interesting than I had intended , since I had not really meant to get the two blade snares at the top of the basket . Happenstance can be a wonderful thing .  A good base to work from is imperative , and I think I have accomplished that , but now , as I commence with the finishing work and detailing , the true test will come . I'll start by doing some hammering to smooth out the contours of the basket hilt , and using the dremel to shape and file the brass . I chose to take one of the katana blades from one of my Mononofu replica swords along with the hilt to serve in the same function for this sword , which certainly helps give it a nice professional appearance even at this preliminary stage .  A few years ago I began work on a sculpture of Tars Tarkas , that stood about 16 inches tall , probably around 2 feet had he been standing erect . This was shortly after I had adopted my two feral cats , Brother and Sister , who were still quite wild at the time . Poor Tars did not fare well with their wild rampages through the house . Sadly all that remains is his head . I may resurrect him now that Dejah is coming to life and the cats have somewhat tamed . I also sculpted a 25mm sculpt at this point in time , see below , that is now in the collection of my brother . It would be neat to create a 1:6 scale version , but at 5 feet long I doubt it will be something forthcoming .  | swordsofmars | dejah_thoris | | Warrior Maiden | Femforce Customs | Jungle Woman | CopperheadPenny | CoolioGirls | WarriorMaidengallery2 | Race Bannon | sci-figal | biminirhodes | Catwoman | sorceress | Femforce Customs2 | A Mod Look | Jennifer Wetworks | OnnaBugei_sha | Gila Garnet | whisper | headsculpts | costume | Wigging It | Darth Fatalus | Swashbuckler | Finn O'malley | Darth Fatalus Diorama | streetfighter | MoonGirlRedux | dakota_montana | ZombieKillerBikerLesbos | Hair | Thaay Katar | halfbreed | princessofmars | HestervanWeiren | Autumn Bliss | BioSaber Ruby | | CoolGirlCustoms | WildRoses | CoolGirl Collection | CoolGirl Collection2 | CoolGirl Collection3 | TheToysmith | CoolGirl Collection4 | CoolGirl Collection 5 | CoolGirl Collection 6 | CoolGirl Collection 7 | CoolGirl Collection8 | Kill All Robots CyberHuntress | CoolGirl Collection 9 | CoolGirl Collection 10 | Bad Amy | Buckaroo Betty | SimpleDetails | CoolGirl Collection 11 | coolgirlHQ | Cool Girl Comics | Cool Girl collection 12 | KisaragiKustom | AlternativeCutey | coolgirl_collection9 | DX-Style Yuni | DX Style Sanchez | Triad Toys | Cool Girl _Akiko Fuji | CG Gallery | Samurai Figures | Cool Girl Collection13 | Cool Links | Triad_2 | Playscale ResourceCenter | Sword and Sorcery | | ReelArts Blue Bulleteer | Shocker Toys | Cool Girls | KiniKomix | KiniKomix2 | Custom Action Figures | eBay Auctions | AppleseedTribute | Macross Valkyrie | Planet of the Apes | Horse Sense | WeaversUpholsteryToo | ToyBiz_Iron Man | Dirty Pair | On Display | The OTHER Gorby | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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